by William Blake (1757 - 1827)
Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau
Language: English
Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau: Mock on, mock on, 'tis all in vain! You throw the sand against the wind, And the wind blows it back again. And every sand becomes a gem Reflected in the beams divine; Blown back they blind the mocking eye, But still in Israel's paths they shine, The Atoms of Democritus And Newton's Particles of light Are sands upon the Red Sea shore, Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.
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Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827) [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Jacquelyn Yvette Beahm (1930 - 1988), "The scoffers", 1971 [low voice, flute, and piano], from Three Poems by William Blake, no. 3. [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
- by David Andross Farquhar (1928 - 2007), "Mock on, mock on", 1947-9 [voice and piano], from Blake Songs, no. 9. [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
- by Joseph Glaser (b. 1991), "Mock on! Mock on! Voltaire, Rousseau!", 2012 [soprano and piano], from Songs of Faith, no. 1. [ sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Mitchell (b. 1941), "Mock on, mock on", op. 25 no. 8 (1977), from Visions from the Flame, no. 8. [ sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Victoria Brago
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 76